


In the Kytinn Tunnels

by Martian_Puree



Category: Mortal Kombat (Video Games)
Genre: Betrayal, Gen, I aint never been with a ladybug before, Kano Shenanigans, Oneshot, Villains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-12 22:47:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20158576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Martian_Puree/pseuds/Martian_Puree
Summary: There's a game to be played in every relationship, when anyone wants anything from anyone. You push and pull and wait until the other slips and you can rake your claws through their soul and rip out anything that sparkles just the way you like it. But you like to wait, don't you? You're awfully patient for a sinner.





	In the Kytinn Tunnels

**Author's Note:**

> Love you, Jes!

“So, these are all your kids?” Kano inquired, casually nudging a wriggling beetle stuck on its back upright. His boots were covered in the gore of its less fortunate brethren who couldn’t dodge his strides quickly enough. 

“In a sense, they could be considered as much.” She didn’t deny being the cause for the insects that populated the hive’s existence. Although it didn’t bring Kano any closer to thinking he held a grasp on her biology. He doubted she’d let him get anywhere near one of her real kin without destroying all his schmoozing.

“They got any names?” He plucked what appeared to be a centipede from the ground, letting it flail around desperately between his forefinger and thumb, “Asia, Mickey, Frieda, Derek, Sheila, Darla…” Trailing off as he dropped the poor thing, which scampered off into one of the many tunnels. 

D’Vorah continued whatever it was she was doing in this corner of the hive, her back still to Kano. “They do not require names, as we are all linked.” She tossed something behind herself, some sort of amber like goo that nearby beetles swarmed to consume. 

“What? Like, you all have the same WiFi connection? You all really robots?” So they were all hooked up to either each other, the kytinn who birthed them, or all kytinn.

“Foolish Earthrealmer.” Take it to the Outworlder to take a joke too seriously. 

“You really got this place all spruced up. Mind tellin’ how you built it so fast?” He tilted his head up toward the ceiling, where larvae feasted on their own meals.

“Fire can only destroy so much. The burnt remains of the kytinn that once populated these hives now fertilize its grounds for the new generation. It is what makes us…” 

“Resilient. Hardy.” She turned to fully face Kano at his words, staring dumbly across the barren hive floor. 

“Not yours to keep.” She saw through him quite better than anyone else did. Everyone thought they knew Kano when they put two and two together on his motivations as a person. But that wasn’t really knowing Kano. It wasn’t sensing his presence before he even entered the room, it wasn’t knowing how he would attack. It wasn’t asking him a question you already knew the answer too, just to hear him play along into your confidence. The only people who really got close enough to knowing him like a dear old friend were Jax and Sonya, and they didn’t even get the tragic backstory monologue yet. Not for lack of trying, of course. D’Vorah hadn’t either, but she probably knew what it was like being separated from family that barely understood them in the first place. She probably knew a lot in fact. And call Kano crazy, you wouldn’t be the first. But he liked vulnerability like that, it made the inevitable betrayal all the more sweeter. It wasn’t him who would feel betrayed, it was them.

“Who said anything about keeping? You’re not an ant terrarium last I checked.” He allowed her to get close to him, knowing she wouldn’t kill him just yet. Correction, try. It would take another week or two for her to start thinking about that, to really debate whether keeping Kano around was doing more harm to the hive than good. Kano would do as much harm as he pleased if she let him stick around longer than needed.

She stalked towards him, her feet softly clicking at each step she took, her stingers spread wide as if beckoning him closer. The hive was silent now of chirps from D’Vorah’s bastard children, the sound of only their tapping leg-claws the background noise to their little game. She was in front of him now, Kano observing her movements all the while. Her arms had been by her side, but now reached for Kano’s head, the yellow expanse of her forearms shining in the dim light that fell from what sunlight managed to spill in from the tunnels. Kano had unknowingly been backed against the wall, the organic stone digging into the soft scarred tissue that protected his spine and organs. His large right palm reached behind himself to hold the wall, as though he could climb up it himself at a moments notice, while the other hung lamely next to his Bowie knife. Her clawed hands sat just under Kano’s ash and soot beard, one hand feeling the full pound of Kano’s even heartbeat. Her teeth shimmered behind her maw as she declared, “You could never truly understood This One, Kano.”

Kano smiled like he already did.


End file.
